CNN’s obsession with missing white women has been well documented, but this latest missing woman-turned-murder story is really the perfect storm. Laci Peterson already proved the durability of the “murdered pregnant woman” narrative. That’s a tacit nod to the pro-lifers who celebrate the notion of talking about an unborn baby by name on the TV. I think there’s also another unspoken element to this story, though, as the images of tonight’s coverage have made clear. Here is what the victim looks like.

And here is what her alleged killer and the father of her child looks like.

As they say, two pictures worth many more words. In case you were wondering why this particular missing person case, of the many that occur in the United States on an ongoing basis, has received so much media attention, that’s my theory.

The senior administration official summarized Cheney’s message: “We’ve got to pull together. We’ve got to get this work done. It’s game time.”

An important topic on Cheney’s agenda is to persuade the Iraqi Parliament to forgo its planned two-month recess. The Bush administration is pushing for members to keep working on legislation, such as a measure on oil revenues.

Setting aside that using an idiomatic American expression may not be the best way to communicate with foreigners, the push to keep the Iraqi Parliament in session during July and August makes sense. Otherwise, the alleged September deadline that we’re hearing about will be hard to meet (not that many in the liberal blogosphere think it will be met anyway).

Maybe, though, setting a timetable for withdrawal of US troops is a better way to convince the Iraqi government that “it’s game time” and that they need to get things in order. It’s not like these people have never had meetings with Dick Cheney before.

There are tons of questions. The one I keep coming back to is how one guy could kill so many people. How is it that no one stopped him until he had shot 60+ victims? We’ll learn more details over time, obviously, but if people are being lined up for execution, as supposedly they were, and it’s one guy doing the shooting, why not try to overpower him as a group?

Sympathy was not enough at the time of Columbine, and eight years later it is not enough. What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.

If this event doesn’t bring about stricter gun laws, it’s hard to imagine what will. The NRA is very powerful, though, and these will be interesting days and weeks ahead.

She didn’t have anything to say that we didn’t already know, really. It was more about the spectacle of having this woman, about whom we’ve heard so much, speak in a congressional hearing and tell the story herself.

She revealed little new information about the case, which sparked a federal investigation and brought perjury and obstruction of justice convictions of Vice President Dick Cheney‘s former top aide, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. No one has been charged with leaking her identity.

Still, Plame’s appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was a moment of political theater that dramatized Democrats’ drive to use their control of Congress to expose what they see as White House efforts to intimidate dissenters.

…

Friday’s hearing showed the intense interest in Plame, who drew autograph-seekers and camera-toting congressional aides to a hearing on an otherwise quiet morning.

The most interesting thing in the video above might be the woman in the pink shirt you can see behind Wilson. On her shirt are written the words “Impeach Bush Now.” How do those people manage to get themselves placed for the cameras? And why does CNN feel compelled to show us the exterior of the Capitol and the White House on the side of the screen during these events?